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Rodriguez Sprints/Kendall Memorial Wax Tip

For racers competing this weekend:

Craftsbury has a manmade snow base on the upper/lower fields and around the cabins, much of which is stored snow from last year. Other trails have fully natural snow that has been through several grooming cycles, without much precip expected before the races on Sat/Sun.

Cold nights and average days (mid-20s, low 30s) will be the pattern until Saturday, when things will warm up. It will still be below 30 for the qualifier, and expect snow to be fast! Things will warm up during the heats.

Saturday night temps do not drop below freezing overnight into Sunday, and there is a high of 47 with rain in the mix.

FOR SATURDAY (SPRINT) SKIS

Brush skis thoroughly with a metal brush. If you have a glide zone cleaner, use this to clean the bases.

Apply a colder glide wax such as Toko Blue, Swix 6, or Rode R20 or R30. Scrape and brush.

Apply a mid-to-warm glide wax such as Toko Red, Swix 8, or Rode R50 (Rode R50 is a yellow wax that can run cold). Scrape and brush.

Check-in with Coach Adam at the community wax room! Please try to bring skis at least an hour before your start. We will be testing spray and wool-applied waxes, as well as structure, and will put our winning combo onto all skis.

FOR SUNDAY (MASS START) SKIS

Brush skis thoroughly with a metal brush. If you have a glide zone cleaner, use this to clean the bases.

Apply a colder glide wax such as Toko Blue, Swix 6, or Rode R20 or R30. Scrape and brush.

Apply a warm glide wax such as Toko Yellow, Swix 10, or Rode R50. Scrape and brush.

This can all be done on-site at the Craftsbury community wax room, as Coach Adam will have tools and some wax on-site.

Check-in with Coach Adam at the community wax room on race day! Please try to bring skis at least an hour before your start. We will be testing spray and wool-applied waxes, as well as structure, and will put our winning combo onto all skis.

WHAT SKIS SHOULD I USE?

Universal skis or warm base/warm grind black base skis are probably best for Saturday’s qualifier. You can also bring and test dedicated clear base skis, which are more likely to be in play for the heats, if at all.

For Sunday, universal or warm base skis are in play. If you have clear bases, you can bring them to test against traditional bases.

 

Masters Mini-Camp #1 Recap

We had a rainy day and a short manmade loop for our first Masters Mini Camp of the season…BUT, we had a great time!

Thanks so much to Sleepy Hollow for allowing us to use not only their manmade snow loop, but their lodge space for waxing demos, a group lunch, and a comfy couch video review.

Things got underway with some dynamic warmups, and then skiers broke into groups based on ability. Stations led by MNC coaches Rosemary, Sara, and Kristen had folks learning or reviewing classic technique from striding to double pole, as well as spending some time indoors learning about strength training and exercises.

We had some skiers out on waxless boards for some of their first skiing ever all the way to longtime MNC masters racers. The wet weather didn’t dampen any spirits on the trails.

After spending a good amount of time skiing in the rain, it was great to be able to step inside. Skiers got together with some hot cider, cheese and crackers, homemade treats, and more. Everyone enjoyed chatting about skiing and getting to know their fellow club members, and then it was into the living room for video review!

With a bunch of cozy couches and a flatscreen TV for nice viewing, everyone was able to check out their own skiing, as well as talk through footage of some World Cup skiers. Always good to be reflecting and reviewing to progress further.

After lunch and video, it was time to head outside for skate skiing. We also rotated through an indoor group that got to spend some time waxing and learning about waxing in Sleepy Hollow’s wax room. The rain was starting to change to snow, which gave us hope for a bit of a boost to winter.

You can check out a full photo album from the mini camp at the link below:

Masters Mini Camp #1 Photos

Thanks to everybody that came out to ski, and we would be remiss not to give another very big thanks to Eli and Sleepy Hollow, a ski area helping to keep us all skiing during warm spells like this with their awesome snowmaking system!

Where the snow comes from! Thanks Eli!

 

 

Juniors Classic Dialing

One of my proudest moments as a coach is not a race victory, a team score, or an award.

Earlier this summer at a regional camp, another coach stood next to me when dividing up groups. They leaned over and said “I want to collaborate on your station, because the MNC juniors all classic ski really well and I want to start figuring out why and how.”

Many of us start out on classic skis, be it step-in skis as youngsters or waxless skis as an introduction to the sport. In some respects, that’s the easiest form of skiing there is. Want to get out on snow with someone that’s never touched skis before? It’s likely you aren’t going to jump onto skate boards.

Yet mastering classic skiing with kickwax or klister, on narrow race skis and with speed in mind, is far from easy. Classic skiing perfectly embodies that phrase “easy to learn/hard to master” due to its complexity and necessary balance of power/speed/technique/tempo/body awareness.

If you are a racer, chances are about 50% of your competitions will be classic style. It is necessary to be proficient in both techniques, and yet often teams and coaches, especially at the HS/Junior level, will opt for skate far more frequently. When you have a large team, or a group that needs to eat into training time just to get on snow (for example, taking a bus to Sleepy Hollow) this is understandable and a logical factor of planning for these teams.

Teams and coaches will also take conditions into account. If wax looks tricky, or klister is involved, a switch to skate makes life easier.

But it isn’t always about making things easy! To that end, we tend to commit to classic a lot, likely a bit more than skating, especially in the early season. Through analysis of training logs over the years, in which we track time spent in each technique, it’s clear that a huge step is made when two things happen:

  • An increase in strength training, when the developmental window is correct to involve this type of training
  • A more even balance of skate and classic skiing

Classic with our group can be tough…I often spend the first 45 minutes of a session just dialing-in wax, helping apply klister or a klister/hardwax combo, or making adjustments to skis while everyone gets warmed up. But is this really too different from a race day? Nope! And our willingness to classic ski in tough conditions pays dividends in the winter because, guess what? We’re rarely racing in nice hardwax classic conditions!

This year more than ever I have been super impressed with the level of classic skiing in our group. What is it attributed to? CONSISTENCY, more than anything else. We make the effort to classic ski, and we learn by simply putting in the time. Other little things include:

  • Consistent strength training that helps build good body position, stability, and power
  • Intervals on repeated loops, but at different speeds and efforts to feel smooth vs fast vs hard
  • Switching some of our rollerski ratchets to the front wheel, making it harder to kick during dryland
  • Doing drills where we ski on wet soapy leaves to practice slipping, or doing rollerskiing/skiing on grass
  • Watching video of top athletes, and video of ourselves, frequently!

To that end, here are some clips of early-season classic skiing from a collection of our skiers:

Even if the snow is less-than-ideal, my challenge to anyone looking to improve their classic skiing is to take a chance and put yourself in some tricky conditions. Work on the technique when it is hard, not just easy, and you’ll be rewarded with improvement and a more well-rounded arsenal of technical abilities!

 

Masters Training Start-Up 12/05: What You Need to Know!

How to Get to the Range:  Directions

* You will need to show your Driver’s License at the gate. When asked, you are with “MNC”.

*It’s important to go no more than 25Mph on the base. They do check speed & give out tickets!

Where to Park:

Please park in the big lot on the left just before the Grooming shed. If you can see the trails, range and Walker Building, you’ve gone a bit too far.

Lights & Trails :

The trails are lighted, but the parking lot is not. Bring a headlamp! Please do not go anywhere else on the Range. They do not want us walking or running on the roads. We only have permission to use the trails.

Walker Building:

A path leads from the parking lot through a tunnel to the trails and the Walker Building. The building is heated with wood stoves (we make the fires) and has bathrooms. You are welcome to leave your stuff inside here. On classic days, we usually apply kick wax inside the building and often coaches will just leave the wax of the day out on a wax bench.

How do I Find out Practice Plans?

Plans are posted on the Masters Training Doc, usually on Sunday night (sometimes Monday if it’s been a busy weekend!).

Masters Training Plan

If practice is cancelled, we will post it on the Training Doc and probably somewhere you can easily see on the website. It’s a great idea to get in the habit of checking the training doc before you venture out to practice.

We usually only cancel practice if the weather is quite bad (raining), road conditions are too treacherous, or if the National Guard needs to close for some reason.

BKL Info Dec 4-10 and Sub-Groups

Find your child’s Sub-group & coach info here:  BKL Sub-Groups

Please make note of your child’s coach’s contact info. Let coaches know if your child will be absent. If it is last minute, please text Coach Liz (802-922-1843).

*Remember that groups are not static and we may switch kids if we find they would benefit from being in a different group.

Practice Plans will be posted on Sunday nights or Monday mornings on this site (BKL Schedule).

Please check the website for any last minute changes, especially this time of year or if the weather looks bad. I will post a change by 2 pm the day of.

If you expressed interest in doing a volunteer job at practice- I’m working on it and will send an email.

Practice Plans Dec 5 & 7

It’s our first week of practice. We’ll be at the Range doing games, fun dryland activities, hiking and running. We will meet our groups in front of the Walker Building.

Bring your drivers license to check in at the front gate at the Range as MNC.

Written directions to get to the Range  and Range directions from the MNC Website

 

Tuesday: Penguins, Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes and Racers

Location:  The Range for dryland practice

Gear: wear running shoes or sneakers and dress in layers  (if it’s cold and wet penguins might want to wear boots)

Racers: bring classic or bounding poles (all other groups no poles)

Devos: with the Juniors, check the Junior training plan

 

Thursday: Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes, Racers and Devos

This is a good time to label all the ski equipment with a piece of masking tape and name and show your child how to tell which ones belong to them.

Location: The Range

Jack Rabbits + Arctic Foxes: dryland practice, bring classic ski poles and wear sneakers or winter boots (label ski poles with child’s name)

Racers + Devos: bring skate skis and sneakers and classic or bounding poles (we will have to see if they get any more snow pushed out)

Saturday: Racers Practice 10:00-11:30am at Sleepy Hollow. Classic- bring both waxable and no-wax (if you have them).  It is supposed to warm up on Saturday, so we are anticipating warm hard wax or klister. Coach Kristen will meet the group for waxing under the pavilion (next to the round barn) between 9:50 and 10am.

Sleepy has the 400m snow making loop with Acadia Mania added on.

Upcoming Events

MNC BKL Season Opener Race
We’re hosting a BKL race at Craftsbury on Saturday, December 16th for any BKL kids interested in racing. Race Info Flyer 
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